This Week In Sales: The Last Alchemist of Arland

Last week saw the release of the last game in the Alchemist of Arland trilogy from Gust, Atelier Meruru. The game sold 82,585 copies in its first week and debuted at the #1 spot. While that may not seem like much, it’s a significant improvement over Atelier Totori: Alchemist of Arland 2.

Atelier Totori was released in June last year, and sold 53,871 in its first week. It was handily beaten by Monster Hunter Frontier Online and Love Plus + on the software charts. The year before that, Atelier Rorona released with 43,243 copies sold at launch. This year, Gust’s Atelier game faced relatively little competition, and marks a pretty good upward trend for the Atelier games in general.

Following behind Atelier Meruru was Steins;Gate for the PSP at #2. This sold 63,558 copies in week 1, which in no small part contributed to 5pb’s rejoicing yesterday.

Other games on this week’s top-20 sales chart included Gundam Memories: Memories of Battle, Mass Effect 2, Bleach: Soul Resurrección and Earth Seeker. You can see how they did in the full top-20 chart below:

Excellent news for Gust. Here’s to hoping they stay with the PS3 and keep improving their titles. I honestly cannot wait to see what is next. The Atelier series has such a unique atmosphere and each subseries has their own “feel” to it; for me the best part is dipping my feet into the new “feel,” so the first games in the trilogies usually end up my favorite.

Horrible news for Earth Seeker, though. That looks to be an interesting title.

Hm The OoT effect was short lived with PSP outselling it again. Anyway, Bleach go! Since its coming to the west it will no doubt become the best selling Bleach game yet.

Prince of Tennis, wow!

mikanko

:D for Meruru

:/ for Gloria Union

Shinji Kazuya

I am currently playing Atelier Rorona (got it last month at Amazon) and it’s quite great. A calm and relaxing RPG. Trying to finish it at the moment so I’m ready for Totori when it releases in Europe. And then Meruru!!! O:

Ravage27

I’m a latecomer to the series too (imported from UK), and fell instantly in love with the artstyle,music,gameplay and the general cheerful vibe. I’m on my 3rd playthrough now, and going for the Platinum trophy :3

Speaking of Totori, we’re all in for a treat it seems. According to my Japanese-speaking friends, Totori is a big improvement from Rorona and is one of the highest user-rated JRPGs this gen.

d19xx

What’s with the PSP Gundam game, don’t they normally sell at least 100k at launch?

Suicunesol

Dear Lord…

Earthseeker…

And I thought Pandora’s Tower bombed…

BUT WOW! Look at Mother’s Goose’s Secret of the House go! 120,934 copies total on its first week already WOW :P

Woo, go Gust! They deserve every penny for these seriously awesome games. If they had some sort of deluxe super alchemist edition of their games I’d pick it up in a heartbeat.

Azuku

The Atelier Meruru “Royal Alchemist” Edition comes with the three disc soundtrack, 400 page art book, a Meruru nendoroid, four barrels of cabbage, a large sack of overripe uni and your own homunculus (Homunculus gender availability TBA). Yours for the near steal of ten thousand dollars. Pre-order now and receive six special outfits for your homunculus!

Considering how Kishida Mel celebrated after the release, it’d be dissapointing if it didn’t sell good.
But Bravo Gust. You were one of my favorite developes in the PS2 era, and you earning even more of my love with each game you release. You deserve every bit of that money your making, and I am honored to be able to own your games. I eagerly await Atelier Totori in America, and then Meruru after ^_^

I eagerly look forward to whatever it is you plan on doing with your next installment of the Atelier francise. =)

I wonder if it is really a good sell? Even terrible game filled with rehashed stuffs like Radiant Mythology 3 managed to sell more then 200 000 copies, and it was released on portable device…

kroufonz

it is definitely good sell for niche JRPG made by small dev, while Tales is rather big games in japan (especially in playstation platform)

Ladius

Meruru has the best first week of the entire Atelier series, and the franchise started back in the PS1Saturn days. I think that’s quite enough. Also, Tales is by far more mainstream than Atelier ever was.

I’m happy for Gust =) I’m also currently one of the 82,585 people enjoying (and streaming) the game right this very second.

I think the big question now is…. what’s next? They’ve really refined their games on the PS3 – the jump in quality from Rorona to Totori then to Meruru has been amazing (Rorona to Totori especially) so I have high hopes for whatever comes after.

Ravage27

You are making me jealous, most of us here are still waiting for Totori to arrive later this year :3

I’m expecting Gust to come up with a new IP to replace Ar Tonelico in the immediate future. Whether it will be for the Vita or PS3 is anyone’s guess though.

Ladius

That’s a great question. They could continue doing “old school” Atelier games in the vein of the Salburg-Arland ones, or they could try another sub-series with a stronger emphasis on plot and battles, like Iris and Mana Khemia. They could also be working on a new Ar Tonelico game, since even if the trilogy was completed there were apparently plans for something new.

AzureNova

Ha! Take that every other game that isn’t first on the list….. Whats that, only Atelier Meruru is first, aww looks like you guys will have to try harder next time. Atelier Totori and Meruru already have pre-order slots in my heart, when they get localized lol. Can’t wait to see what Gust and NIS will do next. Go Merruru! =^_^=

Its a weekly chart? 82K is kind of low on US charts if I recall if its months outside of the summer lull of game releases. The lowest game I remember charting was like a kingdom hearts game, was it bbs, or was it metroid other m at 170K

Barrit

Mother Goose beat Earth Seeker…

How did The Last Story end up doing on the Wii? From what I remember, it seemed to have low sales as well. If only it was on.. nevermind.

Ladius

It sold a little less than 150k, a good number for a new IP but a bad number for a first party, heavily marketed game with a console bundle released in a period with almost no new games on Wii.

Then again, jrpg sales on Wii have been extremely disappointing aside from some cases, even if it is the best selling home console of this gen its jrpg userbase seems to be rather small.

Congrats to both Gust and 5pb. Nice to see the littler guys do well and come out on top.

malek86

Wow at Steins;Gate! … and, well, POT. People just love their visual novels, it seems.

Little Battlers and OOT had similar drops. I thought Zelda would stay a little higher.
Oh, and Gloria Union sold meh. Even in comparison to other Sting titles, it didn’t do all that much for a new one. Gungnir did better. I think even Blaze Union did better. Maybe it’s time to rethink their strategy?

I’m really glad for Meruru’s legs… -err… sales. For the looks of it, the game seemed to be moe overloaded so it is totally deserved. Seems like Mass Effect 2 is doing alright as well.

Mister_Nep

Yay I’m glad Meruru did well. I’ve played Rorona and fell in love with it so much.

Rihawf

Meruru deserved it. The Arland series are lovely too, you can’t dislike them.
And…her hat is so cute >_> it would be funny including it in a pre-order kit or something.
It’s funny how everything in the series grow; The characters, our love, the game! :3

JustaGenericUser

I’m glad Earth Seeker at least appeared up there. I wish it did better though.

Also congrats to Gust on Meruru!

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